Summer Fun Megapost!

The last few weeks have been filled with a lot of fun activities and times with friends!  Needless to say, I have collected a bunch of pictures that I have not yet posted.  Here is a glimpse of our "summer fun" so far in pictures.

Summer is Here...Last MOPS

Since Elijah is not in school yet, we are counting out summer by his MOPS schedule.  This month we had our last MOPS meeting of the "school" year, so in our minds it is now officially summer break.  Here is a picture of my handsome little man on the way to our MOPS meeting...

...and here he is when we returned back home. :)  Elijah loves being in the nursery with his friends and always plays the whole time.  I always say that he is probably tired and ready for a nap when I drop him off, but thankfully when I pick him up they report that he was happy and played the whole time.  That said, by the time we return home he is usually good and tired and ready for a (hopefully) long nap.  We had a great time doing MOPS this year and look forward to it starting up again this fall!

Mr. Opinionated

These next two pictures do  not necessarily go with our "summer" theme, but you can see that Eli is starting to develop much more of an opinion about things.  Elijah is in a super curious stage and wants to touch everything.  While sitting in his high chair, he points and if it is something safe I will often hand it to him to check out.  His recent obsession, however, is knives (probably because they are off limits).  Needless to say, I do not hand him the sharp knives that I am using to cut up his food.  Here you can see Elijah's best effort to convince me to hand him the knife.  Since I couldn't really give it to him I decided to just take a picture instead.

Very dramatic and mistreated indeed.  Maybe he will go into theater when he grows up.

Indoor Learning Opportunities

Elijah continues to be fascinated with the computer.  One of the reasons that I find myself so behind on my blogging is because I can never do it while he is awake.  Elijah has discovered the power button, and in the rare occasion that I am looking at the computer while he is up, he will come over and push the button and gently remind Mommy to pay attention to him instead.

We got this puzzle at a garage sale and Elijah loves to pull out all pieces and point at the different animals.  Pointing is his favorite thing to do at the moment and from the time he wakes up until he goes to sleep, he is pointing at something it seems. 

Most likely luck, but he grabbed the turtle puzzle piece and got surprisingly close to the right place!  He can't really put them back in yet, but rather likes to pull the pieces out, clap them together, or thrown them across the room.  I, on the other hand, am getting really good at putting all of the animals back in the right spots. :)

First Trip to the Zoo

Elijah and I took our trip to the Fort Worth Zoo with our friends Kimber and Micah.  We had a great time!  Here we are posing in front of the very scary dinosaur.

Failed photo op with the giraffe. :(  But, you can get a feel for how pretty it was there from this picture.  I was a little surprised at how amazed I was by all of the animals...much more so than Elijah.  Kimber and I had a good time "ooohing and aaaaahing" over the giraffes, elephants, monkeys and apes, and even a hippo and a jaguar.

Elijah was much happier when I let him get down and stand by himself.  Such a big boy...

"Why is that dog's neck so long Mom?"

Eli and his buddy Micah

So cute!

Shadowy pic in front of the elephants

Elijah and Micah checking out the little Elephant statue

I love that they are just so small!

I love our boys!  I am so glad that Kimber and I have had the chance to spend some time together when she has been in town.  It is fun with the boys being so close in age, and also always well needed Mommy time! 

Fun in the Sun- First time in the Baby Pool

We got a baby pool for our backyard and filled it up to use for the first time recently.  To avoid the super cold hose water, we filled it up in the afternoon and then got in a few hours later.  Elijah and I went to check the water, but then had to come back inside to put our bathing suits on.  Elijah, however, thought that we were not going to get in the pool and was extremely unhappy.  Here you can see my sad little boy who didn't realize putting up a bathing suit and sunscreen meant we were about to go and get in the pool.

Checking out the hose

Enjoying the water

Still VERY interested in the hose

Elijah is his bathing suit, helping me roll up the hose after we finished playing in the pool.

Backyard Clean-Up

We recently had a huge hail storm here.  While we thankfully didn't have any damage, we had a bunch of leaves to clean up in the backyard.

My little helper raking up the leaves.

Elijah helping Mommy mow the yard with his own special mower!  We got this mower from Uncle Michael and Aunt Jenny for Elijah's birthday.  He enjoyed pushing it around outside while we did yard work! 

"Hey Mom, I don't think I can mow over all of these leaves.  Will you pick them up?"

"I'll go mow this grassy part over here."

Elijah and Avery

One of my favorite people recently came to visit for the weekend!  Karrie, my former college roommate, came up to visit with her little girl Avery, who is just 3 weeks younger than Elijah.  We had so much fun getting to hang out for the weekend and watching Avery and Eli play together was SO SWEET!  They were the perfect age because they played together side by side and really seemed to enjoy each other's company.  Oh how I wish they lived nearby!  That said, I am so thankful for the time they were here and look forward to visiting with them again soon!

Avery and Elijah taking their first communal bath. :)

Avery clapping the cups together; Elijah amazed at this new concept!

Elijah giving Miss Avery a pat on the back for her cool tricks.

Elijah and Avery were also very sweet to share with one another, even when it came to their sippy cups. :)  Initially, Karrie and I tried to deter them from drinking from each other's cups, but later realized this effort was futile and just went with it. 
Eli: "I'm not so sure about drinking out of this pink cup..."

Avery: "Watch, I'll show you.  It is just like yours, only pink.  You drink exactly the same way..."

Avery: "Now you try..."

Eli: "This girl is crazy Mom!  I don't know where she came from, but I sure like having her around!"

Eli, all tired out from friends and summer fun!  Thanks for making it through our long post of pictures.  With Memorial Day just around the corner, more pictures are sure to come soon!